


I've never had a wolf

by EchoInWonderland



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, POV Solas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2015-10-19
Packaged: 2018-04-27 01:33:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5028544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EchoInWonderland/pseuds/EchoInWonderland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Solas finds out about one of Celestial Lavellan's weird collections and decides to make an addition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I've never had a wolf

He’d been awaiting for Celstial to return from judgement, fully planning on spending the day with her. Solas was well aware that she wouldn’t be back in her quarters for quite a while, but a deep nagging urge to see her room had awakened in him, so he had snuck in before she’d left the war room. He’d taken to exploring the room after only a few minutes, chuckling at her personality shining through despite heavy inquisition influence. 

 

Celest always made sure to keep her things nice and tidy when she was living with others, nothing so obsolete as a stray thread would ever be seen outside of her tent; the room was the exact opposite. Patterns of cleaning where clearly evident, but the messiness and lack to organization more than made up for any order which may have been had. 

 

The bed itself was a marvelous example, a vibrantly purple quilt was stretched tightly around the mattress, pillows laid elegantly against the spotless headboard; the tidiness was soiled after an arrangement of men’s trousers had been carelessly thrown on top along with a box made of bone, a lone knitting needle, and an assortment of colorful glass bottles, each holding a sweet perfume within. 

 

The floor was more fortunate, it was slept and mopped daily, but rather than small miscellaneous objects strewn about, there were decorative chests.  
So many decorative chests. 

 

Each one had a purpose too, she would open one and pull out everything she may need if someone were to have been poisoned with spider venom, another would contain the materials necessary were an unexpected dragon attack to be repeated on Skyhold- the oddest one he’s seen, by far, was a chest specifically for when Dorian would join her in her quarters for a slumber party.  
He chuckled a little, still not entirely sure as to what it may contain, all he knew was that he didn’t feel it was right to invade her privacy to that extent. All he could imagine was a pair of pajamas and list with names of boys they’d done odd things to.

 

Every part of her room was bizarre, all of it following the pattern of a tidy mess. The mess had never bothered the elf in the slightest, he even felt secure enough in the collection to recline on her bed, arms spread leisurely behind him. 

 

He’d only waited a few minutes to rest his eyes, already plunging into the embrace of the fade, he had no longer than the time it took for him to slip past the barrier of the real world before the silk pillowcase underneath him caused his elbows to slip from beneath him. 

 

His body jerked unexpectedly, awkwardly broad shoulders bumping into the thick metal head board. A groan escaped his lips, rubbing his smooth skull in pain, feeling careless for drifting off in such an awful position. 

 

It wasn’t until he stood that he saw the ornate box which had fallen from the top of the headboard. Blue eyes looked at the box in bewilderment, it didn’t look familiar to him. In fact, it even looked as though it had been hidden in a notch made in the mahogany to keep it securely in place. 

 

He looked on at the box for a long while; he wanted to open it. Badly. He wondered what ever would be so private that she’d go out of her way to keep it safe. What made it so special that she had to have it within arms reach? He’d seen her treat priceless glass artwork less preciously than this. 

 

But he knew that it private, he shouldn’t look inside. He shouldn’t look inside either way. It was rude and evasive, it was already intrusive of him to go into her room and peek about waiting for her to arrive.

 

But if it was truly private she would have tried harder to conceal it, right?  
Then again she did have it pretty safely hidden.

 

But she surely knew of better alternatives which would have been safer, right?  
The internal argument began inside him, hands twitching along the pretty rose gold on the box, shiny accents all along the structure. It was small in his hands, but he could imagine her looking inside of it, childish like wonder painted over her face as she opened the box. 

 

Finally his curiosity got the best of him; he decided that if it wasn’t meant to be it would be locked. It wasn’t though, the top came apart with a soft click, contents safely settled inside with ring velvet. 

 

Inside the box were delicate figurines. None of them matched in any way: Porcelain, wood, chipped paint, highly different styles; they were misfit figures which had gone missing from their set at some point. He carefully laid them along the mattress, a small menagerie of animals coming to life. 

 

There were tortoises, sheep, mabaris, bears, every animal which had been molded before laid in the box. The most prominent of all of them made him smile brightly; hallas. One of every color; they were the majority, even a rare golden one thrown inside the collection. 

 

He was amused for a long while, amazed by her innocence, surprised that the inquisitor of all people would have mismatched figures. She could easily have purchased a nice little set in Orlais if she honestly enjoyed having the collection, there would be less identical creatures or finer appearances, yet she choose these. 

 

Solas’ train of thought crashed when he got to the bottom of the box- any and every creature both exotic as well as common had been there.  
With the exception of a wolf. 

 

He went through the collection several more times, and it was painfully obvious to him after doing so that there was no wolf. he felt a pinch of displeasure settle into his stomach. She had every animal which had walked the earth, yet she choose to leave one out? The one he cared most about? He had become so engaged in his pouting that he hadn’t noticed the inquisitor come into the room, skeptical look crossing her face when she saw him; the expression turning mortified when she saw what lay before her lover. 

 

“Solas! What- Where did you find those?” Her face was beet red, embarrassment filling her up. He’d seen her little collection of figurines, the juvenile menagerie she refused to let go. 

 

She’d usually find the toys after battles, the only remainders of children which had once lived there. the children who were usually poor and forgotten to begin with, were easy targets. They found their ends at the hands of war, leaving only the slightest of memories behind. 

 

When she walked past such monuments, it was impossible for her to walk past them, they were often covered in blood of mud, sometimes even cracked. The thought of leaving behind the fragments of lost lives left her heartbroken, so she would reach down and discretely pick up the precious remnants. As soon as she was in a private place she would meticulously clean and repair them, putting them into her box. 

 

Occasionally, Cole and Celest would get together and attempt to identify where the parents were- no matter if they were dead or alive, they would try to leave the figuring with them. As an attempt to dull the pain.

 

The ones which had no homes remained in her bedroom; they meant something to her. She couldn’t bear to get rid of them. No matter how they weighed down her pack, she wouldn’t sell them. 

 

The original reason for her having them had a deep meaning, yes, but eventually, she had begun growing fond of the small animals. It pained her to say that when she saw a misfit toy sitting in a shop, she would gladly hand over the coin to bring it home. They would stay there as well, occasionally she would lock her doors and bring them all out for a good dusting. 

 

“You were not supposed to find those. Ever.” She didn’t move from the doorway, looking closer to darting than to coming to terms with her collection. It took every bit of self control for Solas to not laugh, she looked more like he’d discovered a dead body than a box filled with animals.

 

“Hello, vhenan.” His voice was smooth, coming out steady and well paced despite the situation. Solas was wrong to have peeked into her box, but he was amused at how embarrassed she was from the discovery.

 

“How much have you seen?” The man smiled broadly, “I’ve thoroughly admired all of them.” Her eyes widened, excuses in elven began pouring past his lips, a nervous habit she’d developed soon after her arrival to the inquisition. It became obvious to Solas that there was absolutely no way to convince her that the animals weren’t a problem to him.

 

Rather than explain what had occurred, he opted to let her have some time to process her thoughts; just before exiting the room, however, he stopped next to her. 

 

“You appear to be missing one.” She gave him a confused look, watching him exit her bedroom. She spent the next few hours cleaning up her room and finding a new hiding spot for her figurines, wondering what Solas had meant about her missing one.

 

Had he took one? Was he referring to how they were only small pieces of a collection? Had he just needed something to say and that’s where his thoughts wandered off to? Confusion ate away at Celestial, her eventually settling into her bed, jotting down potential meanings in her journal.

 

She drifted off to sleep, finding nothing of interest in the fade. Even after trying to visit her lover on several occasions she sound nothing but herself to keep her company. As soon as Lavellan had learned to control her dreams it seemed all the creativity went to the void, leaving her to her own devices for hours at a time.

 

Time crawled along slowly and as soon as she woke up, she decided that she would talk to Solas about her ‘toys’. He must have known she didn’t collect them for leisure, right? There was no way he would believe her to do such a thing. She may be young, but she wasn’t that childish; she hadn’t thought so at least.  
Celestial noticed the fade around her beginning to become blindingly bright, she knew consciousness was finding her and she welcomed it with open arms, wanting nothing more than to at least do something productive. 

 

She was startled awake when a deep whisper suddenly filled the space, upon looking around she saw that her room was all which surrounded. Nothing was out of place in the slightest at first glance, even her mess went untouched. She was just paranoid after seeing how easily someone had managed to sneak about the space yesterday, it was fine now. 

 

Lavellan stretched, gasping when she saw her box sitting at her side. Confusion settled in her stomach, looking around to see if she had perhaps forgotten to put everything away. Nothing had been changed though, she knew for a fact the box had been put under a pile of curtains in the corner.  
With a little breath her hands picked up the delicate metal, she unclasped it, gawking at it when she saw the contents. 

 

Glittering chiffon replaced her cotton on the top, a tiny statuette made from the smoothest ironbark she’d seen in her life pressed inside. She lifted it up from the fabric carefully, an odd mixture of coolness and warmth inside, the wood buzzing slightly under the pads of her fingers. It was detailed, the most detailed she’d ever seen even in the finest shops in val royeaux- tiny peaks of fur and whiskers adding texture to the creature. It’s face was gorgeous as well, holding strong features along it’s face and above all else the eyes. The eyes were stunning, tiny specks of red crystal had been placed inside six separate sockets. 

 

“I never expected for the dread wolf to find me like this” She laughed, happiness filling her to the brim. It reminded her of her clan, reminded her of her own childhood- one which she hadn’t ever been able to experience fully due to shemlen wars and eventually the conclave. 

Upon picking up the fabric to wrap up the tiny wolf again for safekeeping she noticed the strong smell of sandalwood. So this is what he meant? She had excluded the wolf and upon seeing the one he’d left for her, it had been a grave mistake. It was gorgeous, providing a feeling of warmth in her. 

 

She carefully placed it back inside, dressing as quickly as she could before darting to Solas’ room to thank him for the little wolf. The main was awaiting her presence down the hall, healing the last of the nicks he’d given himself while crafting the statuette, smile spread over his face pridefully. He was excited to see her, to see how she would react upon seeing the dread wolf in her bed. Solas was content.


End file.
